The first apartment building in Cortex has been officially proposed and has a very high likelihood of getting built.

According to the February 25th LCRA agenda, a $50 Million, 262 Apartment building has been proposed by an affiliate of GMH Capital Partners, a developer based in Newtown Square Pennsylvania. The project will sit on the parking lot behind Cortex 1 and span the full length of that lot. At a height of 6 floors, it will be a decent size that will make the area feel denser. As it currently stands, Cortex feels more like a suburban business park than a urban innovation district.

The development will also feature 10,000SF of retail space spread out along Duncan and Boyle. 515 parking spaces are planned in a connected parking garage that will not be visible from the street.

This is the first step in creating a vibrant 27/7 community in Cortex. They have office space now with a Aloft Hotel set to open later this year, but the district lacks apartments which will bring more permanent people down to this area. The potential of hundreds of new residents to Cortex could be good for creating the vibrancy that has long been hoped for.

The elimination of a surface parking lot also benefits the area in making it denser. Between this, 4210 Duncan and the yet to be unveiled BJC Neuroscience building at Duncan and Newstead, 3 parking lots will be replaced by 3 sizable buildings. All 3 buildings will sit along the Duncan Street corridor.

The architect on the project is Norristown Pennsylvania based BartonPartners. The hope is to begin construction on the project this summer with a completion in August 2022. The only incentive being requested for the project is a sales tax exemption on construction materials that will be facilitated through the issuance of industrial revenue bonds.

Looking Back

This isn't the first apartment project to be proposed in the Cortex area. Back in October 2016, when Cortex Phase 3 was unveiled, a 200-unit, 5-story apartment building, with a parking garage, was proposed at the Northeast corner of the Boyle and Duncan intersection. The developer on that project was Antheus Capital and the Silliman Group. The architect was to be Kansas City based El Dorado. That project was cancelled in January 2017 due to it being too costly to make feasible.

More recently, Koman has been eyeing an apartment building at their Cortex K development at Clayton and Sarah on the Southern side of Cortex. No specifics were ever given on that project and there has been no word on the Cortex K project in general for a little while now.